India tops online population growth chart

PTIMar 6, 2007, 04.35pm IST

New Delhi:India has emerged as the fastest growing country of Internet users, surpassing the growth rates in the US, China, Japan and has been ranked as the eighth largest country in terms of netizens.The number of people using Internet worldwide grew by 10 per cent in a year till January to 747 million people, with India topping the growth charts with a 33 per cent jump, a new study shows.According to data compiled by Internet usage tracking firm comScore Networks, India had over 21 million Internet users aged over 15 years at the end of January, as against below 16 million a year ago.While the US has retained its position being home to the world's biggest online population with over 153 million total Internet users, it registered a marginal growth of just two per cent in a year.China has emerged as the second biggest Internet population with 86.8 million users, followed by Japan with 53.6 million, Germany (32 million) and the UK (30 million) in the top five.India has been ranked eighth ahead of countries like Canada, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Russia, the Netherlands and Mexico.However, the growth rate in India was far ahead of countries having a much larger online population like the US, UK, Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, Spain and the Netherlands -- registering only single-digit growth rates.Internet users outside the US now account for 80 per cent of the world's online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year, comScore Networks Europe MD Bob Ivins said.